Hurricane Season 2010 - Alex

We have the first named storm - Alex - in the Gulf of Mexico. At the moment all the forcast models show it crossing land well to the south west of us between Corpus Christi and the Mexico Border.

We will not be out of the storms reach however. Predictions are for between 3-12 inches of rain with high winds.

Time to test out the new drainage and water garden we finished!

We have a pergola

So we went against the suggestion of gargoyles (thanks Canavan) for the trim on the poles and we're really happy with this less chunky version.

The furniture fits nicely underneath and the BGE finally has a permanent home!

There's still a couple of little things to be done - some work on the sprinklers (they spray all over the new patio!), some grading and maybe another flower bed. You can never have to many :D

A new garden bed

One of the conditions of the pergola permit was for us to put in plants along the fence between us our next door neighbour. Apparently it's for privacy but unless they're standing on their a/c unit, they can't be bothered by us BUT we who are we to argue!

Here are the plants I picked out. This part of the yard is a low spot and can get very very wet. After a big storm it's not unusual for it to get an inch of standing water so all these plants are "water garden" or bog garden rated and are natives for our area. They are a mix of turk's cap, louisiana iris, swamp iris, canna lily, texas star hibiscus and strawberry bush.

And let the digging begin!

And after we dug in some compost and soil, the plants went in. We've covered the beds in some mulch to help keep the weeds down and give them some definition.
The rock in between the beds is over the existing french (aggie) drain. We also moved the bird bath to this area because it wont matter if it drips water all over the place!

Fingers crossed they all survive. :D

More progress

The focus of yesterday was the electrical. We have a line going from the existing outdoor outlet, under the ground the back, left and side post. It come out there with another outlet and switch for the fan then runs up the pole and along the top to the fan. Looks pretty good :)

The forms were also done ready for the concrete. All the hard stuff is nearly done!

A pergola update

It's amazing what 2 guys can do in one day of hard work! We not only have the 4th pole in place but the beams, joists and rafters are all in place.

We're not sure about a couple of the details, like the trim pieces around the top of the posts where they meet the beams.

Any thoughts?

It has started!

We have passed our first inspection and currently have 3 poles in the ground!

It's a good start!

A Pergola

So as you may remember, when we did the pool we lost a lot of the decking/patio we had planned to the easement along the back fence and the inconvenient location of the gas line. So, we have decided to extend the patio out the left side of the house and for some extra shade, build a pergola. Well, we're not building it ourselves of course!

Over the last few months we've interviewed contractors, looked at models, checked references, filed for permits etc. As of today we have the plans approved and permits in hand.

Here's a shot from the back fence looking toward the house. The decking and pergola will come out from the existing decking into what is grass at the moment.

Here's a shot looking back up the yard. The new section will be from the existing decking toward the side fence. We have a 5 foot easement on that side.
The new decking will (hopefully) match what we have already:

We have done our due diligence. Fingers crossed it all goes to plan!

First day of summer and start of hurricane season!

So today is the official start of summer although we've been in the 90s daily for the past 2 weeks! Here is our weather station reading as of 2pm today:

The weather stations sad face tells the story - it's a warm one! Generally the hottest part of the day here is around 4pm and as you can tell from the little arrow, it's only getting hotter out there. Good thing is my clothes on the line dried within minutes!

As a reminder as to how crazy the weather can get here, we had a lightening and thunderstorm come through on Sunday night. It was pretty powerful. We had an inch of rain in about an hour and the lightening was very active. The tree below is in our neighbours front yard. It got struck and as the was so close the clap of thunder that quickly followed was deafening. I screamed like a little girl in an octive that MM believes is not human :)
The rocks are supposed to be all around the base of the tree but the lightening blew them out as it passed out of the tree.

This one strike caused us all a few problems. Our cable TV box was fried and we had to get a replacement, our neighbours lost their TV, Phone and Internet service and another neighbours lawn sprinkler control panel no longer works! All day yesterday there were service vans all over the place fixing down cable boxes!

The weather man (Yanez) is predicting an active hurricane season - let's hope he's wrong (he usually is!)